Upgrading 3 year old PC

[Rambo8155]

Looking to upgrade current PC. I play COD, Battlefield and the odd Elden Ring/ Assassins creed game.

Budget is up in the air so any recommendations I am grateful for.

I play with a Asus Nitro 2560v1440p 144hz monitor

Case
CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 680X RGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
10GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3080 - HDMI, DP, LHR
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
3 x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)

 

[SpyderTracks]

What make and model monitor are you pairing it with?

Where is it you need a performance bump, what aspect isn't the way you want it?

 

[Rambo8155]

What make and model monitor are you pairing it with?

Where is it you need a performance bump, what aspect isn't the way you want it?

I have a ASUS Nitro 2560v1440p 144hz monitor

I want a better graphics card as I'm not quite reaching those frames at the resolution in the newer titles

 

[SpyderTracks]

I have a ASUS Nitro 2560v1440p 144hz monitor

I want a better graphics card as I'm not quite reaching those frames at the resolution in the newer titles

Which titles specifically? I take it you’re optimising game settings?

The 3080 is already overpowered for the monitor, you’re not going to see any meaningful improvement from upgrading just yet, next gen maybe.

 

[Rambo8155]

The two game I will mainly play will be MW3 and Battlefield 2042.

Do you think waiting until next year will be worthwhile then?

 

[SpyderTracks]

The two game I will mainly play will be MW3 and Battlefield 2042.

Do you think waiting until next year will be worthwhile then?

Are you optimising game settings or just running them at max? Both those should be maxing the screen if they're optimised correctly, no problem, the GPU will still be bottlenecked by the monitor.

 

[Rambo8155]

I'm running them at low-medium settings and only scraping around 130-150fps consistently

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'm running them at low-medium settings and only scraping around 130-150fps consistently

There’s something wrong with your windows setup then, should be far higher than that.

 

[Rambo8155]

How to I check/change this?

 

[SpyderTracks]

How to I check/change this?

Easiest way is do a clean install, then you know it's setup correctly.

What Anti virus are you running? Have you ever used any driver optimiser packages that automatically search for updates? Have you used any windows tuner programs?

 

[Rambo8155]

I'm running Kaspersky antivirus, "Driver Boost 10" the free version and I don't think I have used any windows tuner programs.
My pc is 3 years old

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'm running Kaspersky antivirus, "Driver Boost 10" the free version and I don't think I have used any windows tuner programs.
My pc is 3 years old

Oh dear, yeah, your windows is borked.

1/. 3rd Party antivirus hasn't been needed since Windows 7, they actually reduce protection, and hugely increase resource useage. Basically huge no no.

2/. Any driver optimiser is snake oil at best, they almost always install the incorrect drivers and cause system issues, and often malware at worst (more often than not). Basically totally unrequired, never have been a tool for windows. Windows update will manage drivers completely aside from GPU which you manage through GeForce Experience.

A clean install is definitely required, it's impossible to know what the driver optimiser has installed for a start.

 

[Rambo8155]

Ah right okay, will I need to back up my current files on an external drive when doing a clean install or how does that work?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ah right okay, will I need to back up my current files on an external drive when doing a clean install or how does that work?

You’re only wiping the c drive, you should have any data on the d drive if it’s setup correctly.
If it's not setup like that just copy your data to the D Drive. You don't need to touch that.

 

[Rambo8155]

What data do I have to save/move over?

 

[SpyderTracks]

What data do I have to save/move over?

Only your data, nothing in windows.

Data is any files like documents or movies or photos that you've stored. But this should all be on your D drive anyway assuming you setup your libraries in the first place. You don't have to move any content in cloud storage like OneDrive, that's all backed up to the cloud, so will just be available when you sign back in on the new windows install.

Game saves are all backed up to the cloud as well in whatever games platform you're using so you don't have to worry about them.

 

[Rambo8155]

Right okay thanks, is there a video/website that will take me through how to clean windows step by step?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Right okay thanks, is there a video/website that will take me through how to clean windows step by step?

Many. To stress though, you need a clean install, a windows reset won't do it, you need to install using the latest windows installer direct from Microsoft.

Welcome to PC, I'm guessing this is your first? You've got a lot of learning to do

 

[Rambo8155]

I see, it sounding very stressful haha.

Yes I've never had to do anything this technical at all, only play games and do stuff for work on it XD

 

[SpyderTracks]

Since I'm feeling generous, I'll give you a pointer, it's far easier than you're imagining and you should be doing it at least once a year anyway with each major windows version update. This is especially true for any gaming PC to maintain full performance. It only takes about 30 minutes to get fully up and running again so long as you've got everything setup correctly

if you're a bit rusty on clean install, then just follow this:

Download a new copy of Windows using the Media Creation Tool (Second option on linked page) to an 8GB (min) USB.
Boot that USB and choose a Custom Install.
Delete all UEFI partitions on the system drive (EFI System, Recovery, MSR Reserved, Primary).
Select the unallocated space that results and click the Next button. The installer will create the correct partitions and install Windows.
Run Windows Update repeatedly, even across reboots, until no more updates are found.
Then make sure to install all optional updates as well (these are system drivers)
You may need/want to download and install the latest graphics driver from the Nvidia/AMD website (they change so regularly the latest version isn't always in the Windows libraries).

This is also worth a watch